And still they turn up!
Posted: Tue Jan 05, 2010 6:08 pm
I have been contacted by a chap who owns the remains of two OHC Minors. When I checked the chassis register, neither car appears to have survived, but, oddly, I have the full build data for both cars. This menas that they have been the subject of my close research at some point in the past.
The first one - M20663. It turns out that I have the original brown logbook for this car - VE 2782! It was given to me by Geoff Thornton many moons ago.
The other is chassis M4282. This turns out to have been TM 4531. I know this because of the following note in the chassis regsiter: "Harry Edwards has a photo in his earliest M8TC photo album. He states: "Bedfordshire registration, late 1929. Remains of an OHV fabric saloon found by Geoff Thornton in 1968.""
So both cars were owned way back in time by Geoff.
So, going back to the owner's original e-mail - the dots begin to join up. He wrote: "About 42 years ago when I was about 18 years old I couldn't afford a complete car but someone was selling three incomplete Morris Minors all of which had been partly stripped down and robbed for spares. They were a 1929 and 1930 OHV and a 1931 SV. There was for instance only one OHV engine with a cracked block and an only one SV block minus pistons, cylinder head etc. however there were four OHV cylinder heads but not a decent camshaft amongst them. There were no seats and only one bonnet and the only instrument was one ammeter. I went to a local scrapyard where there were the remains of three further very rusty cars all missing their brass makers plates and with squashed on non existent bodywork but there were three very rusty engines one OHV one SV and one MG M-type which I acquired.
I'm afraid I never managed to get round to repairing them and they were kept under tarpaulins at my parent's house which did cause further deterioration particularly to the wheels that rusted away at the bottom in most cases so about fifteen years ago I dismantled two of them so I could store them indoors in various sheds where they remain today.
I was thinking about trying to restore one of them, at least to the extent of a rolling chassis and came across your website and hence the request to join the forum."
It is so rewarding when not one, but two cars that were thought lost decades ago, turn up - even if they are in a poor state.
It should be possible to obtain a V5C for VE 2792, since the original logbook has survived, but I am less hopeful about TM 4531. Harry presumably wrote the chassis number on the back of the photo - otherwise we would not have a record of it. I will ask him for guidance on both chassis.
The first one - M20663. It turns out that I have the original brown logbook for this car - VE 2782! It was given to me by Geoff Thornton many moons ago.
The other is chassis M4282. This turns out to have been TM 4531. I know this because of the following note in the chassis regsiter: "Harry Edwards has a photo in his earliest M8TC photo album. He states: "Bedfordshire registration, late 1929. Remains of an OHV fabric saloon found by Geoff Thornton in 1968.""
So both cars were owned way back in time by Geoff.
So, going back to the owner's original e-mail - the dots begin to join up. He wrote: "About 42 years ago when I was about 18 years old I couldn't afford a complete car but someone was selling three incomplete Morris Minors all of which had been partly stripped down and robbed for spares. They were a 1929 and 1930 OHV and a 1931 SV. There was for instance only one OHV engine with a cracked block and an only one SV block minus pistons, cylinder head etc. however there were four OHV cylinder heads but not a decent camshaft amongst them. There were no seats and only one bonnet and the only instrument was one ammeter. I went to a local scrapyard where there were the remains of three further very rusty cars all missing their brass makers plates and with squashed on non existent bodywork but there were three very rusty engines one OHV one SV and one MG M-type which I acquired.
I'm afraid I never managed to get round to repairing them and they were kept under tarpaulins at my parent's house which did cause further deterioration particularly to the wheels that rusted away at the bottom in most cases so about fifteen years ago I dismantled two of them so I could store them indoors in various sheds where they remain today.
I was thinking about trying to restore one of them, at least to the extent of a rolling chassis and came across your website and hence the request to join the forum."
It is so rewarding when not one, but two cars that were thought lost decades ago, turn up - even if they are in a poor state.
It should be possible to obtain a V5C for VE 2792, since the original logbook has survived, but I am less hopeful about TM 4531. Harry presumably wrote the chassis number on the back of the photo - otherwise we would not have a record of it. I will ask him for guidance on both chassis.